


Spilling Milk and Falling Stars

by yuletide_archivist



Category: Tokyo Babylon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-20
Updated: 2008-12-20
Packaged: 2018-01-25 06:13:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1635839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yuletide_archivist/pseuds/yuletide_archivist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lunch with our heroes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Spilling Milk and Falling Stars

**Author's Note:**

> (contains series spoilers) In the X tarot deck, the Five of Cups uses a colour illustration of Hokuto's death in Seishirou's embrace. It's a powerful image, but obviously not the traditional one for the card, which is described in the story. The card can also represent a life being turned upside down when it's inverted, a card of betrayal. Something tells me that, when his primary card fails to be turned, this card appears often for Seishirou.   
>  PS to the recipient: I'm sorry for the lack of real crossover. I've never seen an episode of the shows you wanted, so I had a friend help me at least put the boys in the background of a scene for you.
> 
> Written for Kenshinzen

 

 

"Sorry I'm so late", I murmur as I slide into the empty seat at the table, feeling a flush creep up my cheeks. It's clear from the side dishes scattered around the table that the others have already ordered; it's all I can do to keep myself from apologising further. Hokuto always teases when I apologise too much, which usually has the effect of making me apologise more. It's something of a vicious cycle.

The waiter bustles around the table, pouring me a glass of water from a jug as he places a small bowl of soup beside my chopsticks. I'm surprised that he can balance both tasks, but he moves with a casual grace, as if this isn't the middle of the lunchtime rush in a full restaurant. From under an arm he hands me a menu and smiles, before disappearing to the next table that requires him.

Seishirou smiles so warmly at me that for a moment my heart beats loudly in my ears. I open my mouth to apologise again, feeling the stammer start before I can even find the words I want to say, and am suddenly relieved when Hokuto's laugh disrupts the moment.

"Subaru, you're always too eager to help other people at your own expense! What was it today, an old lady needing help across the street, or the Ghost of Christmas Past coming to haunt an old salaryman with dodgy practices?" She declares the words dramatically, with open-armed gestures that startle the foreigners at the table beside us. Something about their features suggest that they're related, probably brothers, and they have an aura about them that says that they're no strangers to unusual events, like seeing a young man and his twin sister dressed in matching outfits. It's clear from their expressions that don't speak the language, so I smile embarrassedly at them and hope they understand that everything here is fine.

After a moment I realise that Hokuto is waiting for an answer. "I passed a cemetery on my way from the assignment and had to pay proper respect to the dead." I realise just in time that it wouldn't be prudent to let Hokuto know that I was helping the ghost from the industrial complex I had been blessing relocate to a more peaceful surrounding; she worries sometimes that I spend too much time talking to the dead and not socialising with other people my own age. As it is I've missed another day of school today; I'm never going to get caught up on all my homework before the exams in a few months. Then again, Hokuto's also not at school, so at least I'm not alone in my truancy.

"That's our Subaru, always so kind!" Hokuto says, taking another mouthful of salad. The foreigners (Americans? They're speaking English, I think) give her another curious glance. I wonder if they're discussing the cat ears she's wearing or the tail dangling down the back of the chair. They must be new to Tokyo if they're that surprised by her fashion stylings; there are more dramatic costumes available for ogling any day in Akihabara.

"It's always wise to be kind to the dead, Hokuto-chan", Seishirou says quietly, and my eyes snap back to him with a half smile. The waiter takes my order for yakisoba and disappears once more. "After all", Seishirou says, "you never know when we might encounter them again."

There could have been an awkward silence at that, but Hokuto merely laughs. "I never expected you to believe in ghosts, Sei-chan! You always seem too serious and scientific." He reaches with a casual hand to slide his glasses back up his nose as she says this, and there's a hint of uneasiness about him, as though he's uncomfortable at being put on the spot.

"I've spent enough time with our Subaru-kun to know that there are some things that cannot be explained by science alone." Hokuto nods at this, as our lunches arrive and we start to eat. "Besides", Seishirou says around a mouthful of his kitsune udon, "I wouldn't want to meet an angry ghost, I've seen enough movies to know that."

"That's so true, Sei-chan!" Hokuto nods her head emphatically. " _I ain't afraid of no ghost_ ", she says in her best English, mimicking a foreign film we had watched together as children. Her accent is pretty good, I think, though I'm no judge of such things, again due to my lack of time to study. Once again I catch the Americans watching us, this time with smiles on their faces. One part of me wonders if they are actually following the conversation or just Hokuto's emphatic outbursts. 

"I was thinking more about the Ninmenju, the tree demon from _Chinese Ghost Story_ ", Seishirou says with a shudder, and Hokuto joins him in the motion. 

"Don't remind me, Sei-chan!" 

"Or the demon-mask from Onibaba!"

"Sei-chan!" Hokuto flails in remembered terror, but I don't think I've ever seen that movie.

"What?" I am more than a little confused, as is often the case when my sister and Seishirou-san start bantering like this. I'm never sure if they're talking too fast or just on a higher plane of conversational knowledge. How do they find time to watch all of those movies and read those books? I'm so behind in pop culture it's no longer funny, but I suppose an onmyoji doesn't really need to know much about what's on television. 

"Never mind, Subaru-kun", Seishirou says with that smile that makes me flush. "So how did things go at the new factory?"

There's a long pause as I try to find the words to explain what I did at dawn to rebalance the forces of yin and yang at the factory, and how that had soothed the resident ghost. I remember at the last moment that I don't want Hokuto to know about that nice young woman, and all that had happened to her. I take another bite of my yakisoba to stall for time. "One of the owner's political enemies had cast a curse upon him and it was upsetting the local spirits", I say eventually and the only omission is the nature of the resident spirit. "I had to lift the curse and properly bless the factory before anyone could start work there next week." I smile at the recollection of the owner's happiness as I told him that the factory would no longer be plagued by more than its fair share of bad luck. 

"Do you think it was the work of the Sakurazukamori?" Hokuto asks in excitement. "Everyone in our business knows that their clan will do anything to ensure the success of their clients, and that they'll do anything for money." I've never quite understood her fascination with the clan of assassins who protect Japan from the shadows. Sometimes her thoughts run much faster than I can follow, much like her moods and fashions.

"No", I say, not even noticing as I close my free hand and open it repeatedly to feel the scar tissue on the back of my hands stretch, "it was a very basic curse, the sort anyone could find in a basic spellbook in a library. Messy, though, so I ought to find the person who cast it this afternoon to be sure that nothing rebounded on them when I broke the spell." In truth I've already sent my shikigami to track down the amateur magic user, and I suspect that Seishirou knows that, although Hokuto won't figure it out for a while yet.

"Is that possible?" Hokuto asks, her tone serious for once. Somehow she always knows exactly when the switch is appropriate; I appreciate it.

I run my hands through my hair nervously. "It is with inexperienced magic users. They don't know their own power, and the basic books never properly train people in protecting themselves from magic gone wrong."

"That's our Subaru-chan, always remembering to be concerned about other people." I try for a moment to refute that, but as always my embarrassment flusters me and I cannot make the words come sensibly, so I settle for eating some more. I don't really know why Hokuto does that, making me out to be some kind of perfectly unselfish saint, painting these glowing pictures of me whenever Seishirou's around. I know I have flaws; I'm too shy, for one. I speak to high-ranking politicians sometimes, but that's only ever about my role as an onmyoji. Without the spiritual work to hide behind I would not be able to do it, I know that.

But Seishirou smiles at me, and the need to argue with Hokuto fades away, though my blush remains.

* * *

Once the food is eaten, we leave the restaurant quickly so that someone else can have our table. I feel the Americans' eyes on us as Seishirou pays the bill, refusing my offer of money with a dismissive wave and a "It's my treat." Something about the way he says that makes me smile involuntarily, though I try to cover it up when I see Hokuto grinning at me as if one of her evil plans is starting to come to fruition.

I smile and wave farewell to the Americans as we leave, thinking that we have probably been very good entertainment for them, and something in their serious expressions tells me that they haven't been having a fun time on their trip to Japan. Then again, the older of the two, the one with pursed lips that make him look like a duck, could just be interested in my sister, judging by the way he nods back with a smirk.

We walk out through the shopping mall, through the busy crowds, and Seishirou suggests we go for icecream at a cute shop he knows nearby.

Hokuto leaps forward suddenly with excitement. "Look, Sei-chan, Subaru-chan, a tarot reader! We should get your fortune told!"

"Hokuto-chan", I say, feeling a twinge of worry, "you know it's forbidden for the Sumeragi clan to have their fortunes told by anyone other than a member of the family."

"Don't be such a wimp, Su-chan." Hokuto knows just how to manipulate me, her pleading tone always does the trick. I wonder if Seishirou has learned that yet. "It won't hurt, just this once. Besides, most of the fortune tellers around here aren't real seers, they've just learned how to read the cards from books."

"It might be fun", Seishirou says with an impish grin that makes me flush suddenly. I don't know what's wrong with me these days, I'm sure I never used to blush so much.

"Well..." I'm wavering, and they know it.

Seishirou reaches over to squeeze my arm reassuringly. "I'll tell you what, Subaru-kun. Why don't we ask the fortune teller to give us my fortune first, and then we can ask for our love fortune if my individual one turns out to be any good, okay?"

"What? Love? I don't know..." I stammer as Hokuto squeals and drags Seishirou over to the old man and his carefully-laid out table, leaving me behind. I follow them more patiently, wondering how I always get caught up in their dramatic schemes.

Seishirou asks for a single card reading, and I pretend to know what that means. Tarot isn't a form of fortune telling that the Sumeragi use, we tend to prefer fire readings and astrology, but I'm not very good at performing either. Grandmother always says that I've inherited all of the skills of the Sumeragi in abundance save for the gift of clear seeing. I would rather not know the future, actually, I prefer life's little surprises, but sometimes I think it would be nice to receive hints. The retiree slowly shuffles the cards in a practised movement, and the sounds of the cards sliding over each other is surprisingly loud in the noisy mall. Seishirou is asked to hold his hand over the cards for a moment, and to hold a question in his mind as he does so, and I think Hokuto is about to explode from holding in her excitement.

"Ah!" Hokuto exclaims as a card is turned over, peering at it carefully, and curious, I look down to see a detailed picture of a young man looking at three goblets of spilled red wine. There are two more on the table behind him, but he's upset because he knocked some over. Hokuto's face falls, and Seishirou looks a little disappointed. He gives the retiree the cost of the reading and a gentle smile, and we walk away from the table before he can explain the card to us. I follow, though a part of me would like to stay and find out what the others seem to already know. 

"What happened?" I ask, rubbing my hands together nervously. It's not often that there's something supernatural going on that I don't understand, but clearly Hokuto and Seishirou know more about the tarot than I.

Hokuto and Seishirou exchange knowing glances, as if deciding how much information to give me.

"That tarot reader has no real power", Hokuto says eventually, turning to me with her hands on her hips. "The card he drew for Seishirou was completely wrong. It says that Seishirou is obsessed by something he's lost in life, instead of being happy with what he has." She grabs Seishirou's arm and gestures to his face, and my eyes are drawn once more to his gentle smile as he accepts this manhandling. "Does this look like the face of a man who isn't happy with his lot in life?"

I have to admit that she's probably right. "You know that much about tarot cards, Hokuto-chan?"

She nods emphatically. "Of course! In this time of high spiritual power, with the coming planetary alignment and the prophesies about the year 1999 it's important for all of us to keep up to date on all forms of prediction. You never know when it might be important!"

"So that man was telling false fortunes?"

"Yes", Seishirou says in a quiet voice, as if he knows what I'm going to do next.

I half-bow to them and beg their indulgence for a moment. I turn and run back to the fortune-teller, missing the knowing smile that passes between the two of them.

I approach the old man gently and bow to him, a little surprised that he has no other customers. I suppose business will pick up later on when school gets out. "Excuse me for my presumption, grandfather", I say politely. "I'm an onmyoji, may I give you my card?" He smiles and says yes, so using both hands and bowing I hand over one of the business cards that Grandmother asks me to carry for occasions like this. "Just in case you ever have trouble", I say, remembering at the last moment not to go into detail.

"Thank you", the man says after a moment. He reads the name on the card and bows low over his table, thanking me for the honour I have done him in speaking to him. It's clear that he's intrigued as to why the thirteenth head of the Sumeragi clan would be interested in a mall fortune-teller like himself.

"Good luck with your readings", I say hesitantly, realising that it's probably time to go back to the others before he starts asking questions. The old man turns over a card from the deck onto the table and glances down at it as I step back. I'm tempted to look, and catch a glimpse of the image of a man and a tree, but I recall the prohibition against fortune-telling and turn away.

* * *

Later, as Seishirou drives us back to our apartment, Hokuto turns to me and asks why I went back to the tarot reader.

"It's dangerous to try and read the future if you don't have any real power", I say after a moment's hesitation. "Don't you recall when Grandmother taught us that?"

"Not really", Hokuto says breezily, "I was more concerned with trying to learn to read horoscopes myself."

I roll my eyes at her enthusiasm. "When a fortune is cast, a part of the caster's soul is tied to that fortune. It's not really a problem if the person is telling false fortunes by accident, if they have bad luck with cards or something similar..."

"But it can be a problem if the person is deliberately casting fortunes that are false", Seishirou says in that way he has of finishing off the thoughts I'd rather leave unspoken, drawing out the negative possibilities of any situation.

"Why?" Hokuto raises a hand to adjust her cat ears in a nervous motion, looking for all the world like a kitten attempting to bathe.

"The leftover pieces of faith and desire attach themselves to the caster as relics of the wishes of all those who believe in the fortune. They gather together, and their disappointment in the false fortunes and their own power can eventually crush the spirit of an unprepared charlatan. It can be very dangerous for the soul of the fortune-teller."

"So naturally, Subaru-chan had to race to the rescue on a white horse and offer his services as an exorcist, just in case something was to go horribly wrong for that nice old man."

"Naturally", Seishirou says with a smile. "What more would you expect from our Subaru-kun?" There's my blush again, right on time as Seishirou says my name.

I turn away from my emotions to stare out the window, tuning out their banter. It's later than I was expecting, the sun is starting to set, casting long shadows from the tall buildings around. The Rainbow Bridge flashes with reflected light as I see it between the buildings, and I sigh for all the broken wishes of all the children who think their fortunes are to be found in the tuning of a card. I remember my resolve to follow my shikigami and find that magician before the day is out.

After a few minutes I turn back to the conversation going on to realise with some surprise that my sister is flirting on my behalf again.

"Don't worry, Sei-chan, someday you will make a beautiful bride for my Subaru!"

"Hokuto!" I blush and stammer as Seishirou laughs at her. And everything is all right again. 

 


End file.
